Christmas with the Single Dad (The Single Dads of Seattle Book 5) by Whitley Cox

Author:Whitley Cox [Cox, Whitley]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781989081242
Publisher: Whitley Cox
Published: 2019-10-18T16:00:00+00:00

Back at the table, with personal pizzas half eaten and the game of Candy Land sitting in the center, everyone drank wine, sparkling flavored water and beer and laughed until their sides hurt.

It was one of the most wonderful Christmas Eves Aurora had had in a long time. It reminded her of when she and Brecken were small, her parents had been healthy and working and things in life were good. Things in life made sense.

Every Christmas Eve in the Stratford house, she and Brecken would spend the afternoon with their dad handing out socks, sandwiches and blankets to the homeless while their mom prepared her famous Stratford family nachos and wrapped presents. Then they’d all sit down on the living room floor, spread a blanket out and have a “picnic” indoors while they watched old Christmas movie classics like A Christmas Story and It’s a Wonderful Life. Then Brecken would put the porcelain baby Jesus figurine in the manger—not that they were religious, they just had a nativity scene they put out—and Aurora would place the angel atop the tree, and they’d go to bed.

It was one of the days she’d most looked forward to each year because her family was together—which wasn’t very often, given how much both her parents had to work. Her mother had been a hospice nurse but primarily worked nights, and her father had been a heavy-duty mechanic for a construction company, but the company had fallen on hard times during the recession, and he’d lost his job.

Despite his education and experience, he struggled to find work and ended up taking odd jobs until he landed a truck-driving gig, hauling milk products up and down the Eastern seaboard.

Then he was rarely home.

The last great Christmas she could remember when they’d picnicked in the living room had been when she was about thirteen. Brecken was sixteen, and their father had just lost his job, but her parents had decided to wait until after Christmas to tell their children. She remembered her dad’s sad eyes, the looks of worry that passed back and forth between her parents as they tried to smile and laugh through it all. She knew something was up—Brecken did too—but even then, her parents had put on big smiles and given Aurora and her brother a wonderful Christmas to remember.

A hand squeezed hers beneath the table, drawing her out of her thoughts.

“You okay?” Zak asked, his eyes dark with worry. “You looked about a million miles away.”

Nope. Just seventeen years in the past and three thousand miles away.

She shook her head and grinned a big cheesy grin. “I’m right here. Exactly where I want to be.”

“What are your parents up to this holiday season?” Sherman asked, taking a bite of his pizza. “Are they here in Seattle?”

Aurora shook her head. “No. They’re back in New Hampshire, which is where I’m from.”

He nodded. “Lovely state.”

“I think so.”

“What are they doing for Christmas? They didn’t want to come out and visit you?” He continued to munch on his pizza, washing it down with a sip of beer.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.